Guys, ive been meaning to post this for while, but my issues are now coming to a head.

Hi there! Not even two years ago, I felt much the same as you. (I'm 40 now)

I know what you mean about this feeling that something is missing....a piece of the puzzle that somehow makes you complete. Well, I found tha piece
summmer before last. Since then, I am a different person. I am at peace and not worried about the future or dying.

I want to urge you to throw aside the normal concept of religion. This belief that you have to *earn* your way to heaven or your worthiness. You
were considered worthy before conception, and still are. I truely believe that we are here on this earth to learn. To grow in awareness and
experience. The answer is so very, very simple that most people totally miss out on it.

LOVE

We are all part of the same energy/force/spirit/LOVE. When we hate/envy others, we harm ourselves. Try it for one day. Let go of the normal chains
of regret/jealousy/hate/suspicioun/greed and just love everyone. Smile at people geniunly as you walk past them, talk to people in the check-out
line, don't rush, don't stress and GIVE of yourself to others. It will come back two-fold. This is love and it is tangible.

Open yourself up to that connection. Pray/meditate on it and you will feel the very real energy and love that is there. God created us for a
purpose. This life is just one phase and there isn't anything to fear.

That's wonderful! That means you are growing and integrating all these "lessons" you have learned being here. Far to often people just cover things
with rainbows and forget to actually work on their issues. I applaud you efforts.

Nobody said this would be easy! We got on this bike, now we peddle it. Don't give up!

Everything is perspective, look at death like this. It helped me tremendously when dealing with the same fear. Tonight when you go to bed, realize you
are dying a little death. Now think how many times you have died over the course of your life. Do that enough times and the concept of "death" seems
silly!

I want to urge you to throw aside the normal concept of religion. This belief that you have to *earn* your way to heaven or your worthiness. You were
considered worthy before conception, and still are. I truely believe that we are here on this earth to learn. To grow in awareness and experience. The
answer is so very, very simple that most people totally miss out on it.

Thank you for helping me remember this. It is so easy to get caught up in old thought patterns. More and more I am becoming comfortable with
"thoughts" that my heart knows to be true, but my mind rejects.

Religion is the minds concept of "God", our heart would call this god "Love". Feel Love inside your being and radiate that to your self and those
around you. That to me is "God". It is so easy to get caught up in labels of our mind. We adopt a sense of self from them and if someone attacks that
"self" we retaliate. We should keep it simple God = Love, the rest is mind trying to understand and label the world around us.

Thanks again for the reminder, it is something I am currently working on. So easy to forget. Looking through our heart we do not see any labels. We
are all love. Even the "terrorist"!, they just forgot. I say forgive them.

That's because your entire post is about the fear you face with the death of your ego. To me, all person's ego's die when they die, as that is the
outcome of the biological computing our brains do. Your personality, likes, dislikes, goals, dreams, etc - are all byproducts of your physical
brain.

What passes on, is the electricity that ran the neural networks of your brain, and this can easily be called your soul. It's the energy that gives
your body life, that moves onto the wider universe when it's freed from your body upon death.

I think it's entirely human, to think about our mortality, specifically our deaths. Personally, I find it rather humbling to release how short and
vulnerable life really is. I mean, when you start to look at the trees, mountains and earth itself we start to seem rather insignificant don't we? So
much beauty in nature, and so many variations on everything from rocks, to trees, plants and the creatures that dwell on them.

They say the only thing certain in life, is death. Now this is a rather bleak statement, especially for someone feeling the blues, but I like to think
of it a little differently. The variables in life are limitless, I mean of the 7 odd billion of us on this earth, how many of us share the very same
life? None, or very few I suppose, so I like to think as in life, the are limitless possibilities in death. In fact I like to believe there are as
many beauties to be appreciated in death as there are in life. Depending on what you believe, these things could be as amazing as heaven, absolute
peace and tranquility, true paradise free of worries, and hardship. A state of pure ecstatic bliss and harmony. Even if this is not your belief there
is always the fact, that when our bodies give out, and our final moment draws near, we acquire a final appreciation for the beauty in all things. The
sensations that wash over us with something as simple as a sip of water. Looking into the eyes, of a loved one. The articulation and harmonics of
human speech. The way it feels to breath the air and let it exhale slowly.

Knowing that as we die, our bodies return to the earth, becoming part of the very soil that makes up our world, the very heart from which life
flourishes.

I truly believe death is not something to be feared. No matter how it comes, we all experience it just once. How many other experiences in life do we
get exactly like that aside from perhaps bringing life into this world? Our deaths are not so much the end but perhaps the beginning of something so
much more. Heaven, reincarnation, transcendence to another world, perhaps like this or altogether different. The possibilities are as limitless as the
universe around us. Altogether, what ever belief, or lack of beliefs you may have, the entire universe is energy, in different states existing in
harmony. Energy, never ceases to exist, it simply changes forms, and all the particles in your body, are composed of and contain energy. You will go
on, maybe not in the form you inhabit today, but you will go on.

I've too been troubled with dark thoughts, depression, and worldly woes, but I've learned to embrace them, and I quite often find it's the simplest
things that bring me back. Eating a particularly tasty orange, Singing my heart out in the shower, making a blunder and laughing at my foolishness.
Looking at the mountains, or watching some critter going about his business in the yard. My darkest times, usually lead to the deepest thinking.

Life is short, Death is over in a instant, what comes after I'm not sure, and I'm not really sure any of us on this side are supposed to know. I
personally, can't wait to die. I think the whole experience is kind of exciting. (not that I want to hurry it along by any means.) It's the ultimate
question of humanity, what happens when you die? Regardless, of the results we are all here to experience life, and I think in times like these,
perhaps that's the single best thing to do. Live, experience all that you can, the good, the bad no one else get's to experience like you do.

I have a rather weird way of looking at the world, life and death, and I hope you found comfort in my words, as macabre as some of it may sound.

I am 45 and due to recent turns in health am facing the reality of mortality
much sooner than expected, according to my doc i have around 2 years
left on this rock. Im hoping they are wrong.

But i went through all the emotions and worries and feelings, and in the end,
decided to live while i could and not worry about what lie's ahead.
I am not a big country fan, but i think this song will inspire you, it fit me almost
exact and since diagnosed is how i try to live my life as best as my body will allow.

Just a thought here,but does it really matter??Isnt the main issue that you end up where everyone else is??And truly has anyone outside of religon
ever claimed there is more than one place we all go to after death??

I personally want to be where everyone else is,and because everyone I know is going there,what real difference does it make when I get there??It only
matters if I want to live beyond my natural time,the concern only becomes relevant when I want more time.You must be feeling like you are running out
of time,well relax,because you are not running out of time.

Have you ever seen a secret that could be kept between groups of people?I havent,at least no secret that was kept for very long,the more people
involved the sooner the secret is out.Do you truly believe that this secret has been kept if even one human knows where we go after death???I
dont.This means none of us can understand this place or state,the only sure thing is that we all go somewhere and we cant understand it while we are
alive.Thats enough for me,if I truly believed others knew the truth more accurately than that I imagine I might yearn for this unknown knowledge,but
because I firmly believe that there is no way this secret could be kept by humans,I have an easy time of it ,it is simple----I really dont believe I
am the Lotto winner who will discover the answer to what we do after death because in reality billions of religous humans over thousands of years are
still making up BS stories about their own doctrines---we dont even have spiritual unity as a species.This tells me we are like snowflakes,we are all
the same but different and we are all falling some softly some hard,some fluttering slowly some speeding down,but we are all going in the same
direction to the same destination,and for as much as a snowflake can understand where it came from can it undestand where it is going---remember
possesing this knowledge makes you neither a greater or a lesser snowflake,right.

I try to be a snowflake that bounces off of and touches as many people and things as possible on my way down,because i wish to be REMEMBERED,for I
believe that this is the real judgement we all face,our lifespans are decided by how long others REMEMBER US FOR---so touch as many people as you can
today in as many ways as you can manage because you are writing your story in others hearts,the only place that your story really matters,make your
story memorable and you will live on in others hearts and minds for as long as they exist .Just my take on this question.

try to be a snowflake that bounces off of and touches as many people and things as possible on my way down,because i wish to be REMEMBERED,for I
believe that this is the real judgement we all face,our lifespans are decided by how long others REMEMBER US FOR

Mother nature repeats herself everywhere; so i have always thought and believe that
just like the caterpillar turns into a butterfly,when we "die" we are just shedding our outer
skin and metamorphosis to our next ? (what i dont know)

I think at some point we all start to feel our mortality, and it's easy to get drawn into focusing on all the "what ifs".
When you find yourself dwelling on what comes next instead force yourself to think of living with a life of "no regrets".

So many times we hear of people in their final moments regretting the things they did or did not do. Don't be one of these people. Live each day of
your life like it could be your last, and live it in such a way that you don't have any regrets. Don't do anything that you wish you had not, and do
everything you can so that you have no regrets of things you did not do.

Tell your close one's every day that you love them. Don't wait to start that bucket list- start it NOW. Stop and smell those flowers, help that
elderly person load their groceries, smile and laugh with that child making a goofy face in line, go down that slide at the park and laugh your butt
off at yourself.

If you live each day with no regrets you won't have time to think about tomorrow.

Originally posted by SpearMint
I don't know why you would get so worried about something that is only said to exist, the soul, an outdated concept used to explain conciousness
before we started to understand how we work, yet still clung on to by old religions.

What happens, happens. Worrying won't change anything, therefore worrying is pointless, you might as well just have fun while it lasts.

Just because it is oldknowledge does not mean it is wrong.

. Sorry OP I cannot give you proof. You need to seek it yourself. Listening to Chakra
meditative sounds would probably be a good start if you have no own ideas.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Your issue is that your mind is living in tomorrow while your body is here now. You're worring about a future and forgetting the moment you are
living today.
You may be in a rut or have too much routine. Break it. Do things spontaneously.Challenge yourself in some way, define a new goal for yourself and
start.
Life is now, not yesterday, not next year - not even next hour.
Blow some bubbles with the kid down the street, try some ethnic food you've never tried, work on learning some phrases in a foreign language that you
might like knowing.
Most of all get physically active,
Do that and the rest will follow for you and you'll stop worrying so much about death.
Dying only sucks if we've never lived.

I really like this, and I was thinking along the same lines. When my children were young, and very trying for me, I often wondered when that phase
would ever end. Now all my children are adults, and I wonder where the time went. I wish I would have spent less time sweating the small stuff and
blowing bubbles with the kids.

Eternity doesn't seem like a long time to me, given how fast my life has sped by in retrospect.

Originally posted by earthdude
I recently visited a nursing home and talked to people who were dying. This opened my eyes to many things. You may want to try it. When the end comes,
we all react the same way. We see life as the love that it really is. Love endures, life is just a cycle.

Yes, your right, my gran was 92 when she died in 95 and she seemed quite happy to go, she was always saying" its my time, "

But i dont get your "Love endures" statement, what does that mean,? do we all react the same way? really? "we see life as the love that it really
is" How does that relate to evil people, sorry, i just dont understand you. Or that could just be the strongbow

I guess what I am trying to say is that the things we value here on earth are such trivial things compared to the afterlife experience. I died once,
and the love I felt made my fear of death vanish. Call it God if you want. But I know there is an afterlife. I'm here for a mission, but I don't
really know what it is. Evil and good have no meaning in timelessness.

I have a friend who is battling liver cancer, among other things. She's come to terms with her mortality, and the fact that she is fighting a losing
battle. Coming to terms with that frees you in ways you and I simply can't imagine.

But I get where you are coming from. I don't believe in any incarnation of "god" as a creator. No heaven, no hell. Our bodies decay and
eventually cease to be.

But, thanks to the laws of physics, the "information" remains. sure, your body gets recycled back into it's base elements and reused, so in a way
it's gone, but at the very fundamental level, you never go away, you simply go back into the earth.

As for consciousness.... I'd like to think some how our consciousness survives, but I don't see that being likely, and really, eternity as a
bodiless "consciousness" doesn't sound appealing to me.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say THAT would be hell for me.

I'm scared of death, no one wants to die, I can only hope I go out quietly in my sleep.

That's wonderful! That means you are growing and integrating all these "lessons" you have learned being here. Far to often people just cover things
with rainbows and forget to actually work on their issues. I applaud you efforts.

Nobody said this would be easy! We got on this bike, now we peddle it. Don't give up!

Everything is perspective, look at death like this. It helped me tremendously when dealing with the same fear. Tonight when you go to bed, realize you
are dying a little death. Now think how many times you have died over the course of your life. Do that enough times and the concept of "death" seems
silly!

Best wishes to you OP, take care!

edit on 24-10-2012 by AwakeANDreaming because: (no reason given)

edit on 24-10-2012 by
AwakeANDreaming because: (no reason given)

Every moment we change a little bit and what we are died and we are is reborn again a little different. I am scared of hurting the moment I leave the
body. But after that I get to play around and explore. Wihiiiii. Namaste.

My step son explained to me exactly what he felt when thinking of this situation "death", I assured him this was normal as I believe other people do
this as well.
I have had these hot rushes when my thoughts are on that subject, it used to scare the hell out of me thinking of death.

I can't imagine not existing after death, I would have to exist somewhere if I am me. who was me, who was controlling my physical body and seeing
through my physical eyes?

My kids are all grown and gone and I too wonder where the time went.
I kick myself for all the times lost wondering and worrying about this and that
I should've just been there more often enjoying all the little things with them.
I'm not making that same mistake with my grandkids though -
Sidewalk chalk and paper airplanes here we come!
Heck, I might even start a food fight with them.

Live each day as if it were your very last because the future isn't promised to anyone.

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